


Flake

by Titansfan1211



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Agent A - Freeform, Alfred Pennyworth - Freeform, Batman - Freeform, Depression, Dick Grayson is Robin, Family, Flaky Robin, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, References to Depression, dick & wally, implied suicidal thoughts, robin & artemis, robin & kid flash - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-07 22:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14091075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Titansfan1211/pseuds/Titansfan1211
Summary: “Dick, I miss you. You’re sitting right in front of me and I miss you.”In which Robin's depression gets the better of him, and Wally takes it personally.





	Flake

_Hey, swamped with homework. Can’t come to movie night. Sorry pal – R_

“So Robin’s bailing. Again.” Kid Flash announced to the room, flopping down on the sofa besides his teammates.

“How come?” asked Artemis, “Bat stuff, or..?”

“Homework, apparently. Which is lame, considering it’s a Friday night.”

“You can’t fault him for keeping on top of his schoolwork,” said M’gann, entering the room levitating a few bowls of popcorn alongside her. “Between missions and cheerleading, I feel like I’m constantly falling behind. I commend his dedication.”

Wally rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, he’s a nerd, I get it, I just wish he’d be a nerd around the cave more often. He’s never around anymore, besides missions.”

Superboy added his two cents to the conversation. “Can’t fault him for having a life outside of here.” Kid Flash opened his mouth to protest, but was quickly shushed as the opening credits rolled onto the screen. By the end of the first act, Wally had all but forgotten his qualms with the boy wonder.

Until a week later, when Robin bailed again.

_Hey KF – hate to back out at the last second, but it’s been a long week. Not feeling too hot. Rain check? – R_

_Are you sick? Need anything? Soup, medicine, crackers? – KF_

_I’m fine, just exhausted. Thanks though. See you at training tomorrow. –R_

Wally shoved his phone in his pocket, and turned to Kaldur and Artemis. “Well, you ready to hit the beach?”

“Are we not waiting for wonder bread?” Artemis asked, half anticipating the answer.

“He’s tired.” Wally snapped up his towel and beach ball, heading for the exit. Artemis and Kaldur shared a look, but remained silent. After a shrug on Artemis’ part, they followed Wally out to the beach.

The next morning, the team gathered in the Cave for training with Black Canary. Each member of the team casually shuffled in, making light conversation before it was time to begin. But Wally noticed that with two minutes till start, Robin was still nowhere to be seen. “Gonna bail on this, too?” he grumbled. With a minute to spare, Robin’s entrance was announced by the zeta teleporter. “Nice of you to show up,” Wally muttered under his breath. He felt a hint of remorse upon realizing that Robin had overheard his comment.

“Sorry,” he explained to no one in particular, the back of his collar blushing scarlet. “Got held up by Batman on my way out. You know how he gets.”

Before Wally could respond, Black Canary stepped forward, beginning a demonstration on some new defensive techniques. She split up the group into pairs, Wally landing with M’gann. Every now and then Wally would sneak a peek over at Robin, who seemed to be in some sort of deep conversation with his sparring partner, Artemis. Wally couldn’t help but feel that they were talking about him, after catching the two glancing over his way a few times during the lesson.

As soon as sparring wrapped up, Robin vanished from sight. With no Robin to interrogate, Wally turned to Artemis.

“Sooo,” he drew out, “What’s his excuse for ditching us this time? He need to go polish the Batmobile or something?”

“Or maybe he has a life that doesn’t revolve around you, Wally.” Poking him in the chest, she added, “He doesn’t owe you an explanation every time he doesn’t want to hang out, you know.”

“So what, he has other plans?” Wally pushed. Ignoring him, Artemis continued down the hall towards the showers, Wally hot on her heels. “Is he mad at me?” She continued forwards, until, “Or does he just not want to be friends anymore?”

Artemis stopped, curiously gazing at the red headed boy. “Wally, he’s your best friend.”

“Yeah, except every time I ask him to hang out, or the team plans something, he bails.” He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at some strands. “If he’s sick of me, then fine, so be it, I’ll leave him alone and never even speak to him again if that’s what he wants. But if I did something wrong, or made him mad-”

“Wally.” Artemis gently placed a hand on his shoulder, “Look, it’s not for me to say what’s going on with him, but just know that it has nothing to do with you. No matter what, you are his best friend. So try not to take things personally. Okay?”

And Wally did try. He backed off for a while, gave Robin some space. Every now and then he would casually mention team hangouts in hopes that Robin would show. And he did, on occasion – but never stayed for more than an hour, quietly slipping out in the middle of movies and board games when he thought no one was paying attention.

It was a bit disheartening, to say the least. Which is why Wally was so surprised when, after weeks of virtually no communication, Robin shot him a message.

_Hey Kid – you up for pizza? My treat. – R_

_I have a policy to never turn down free food. 1:00? Happy Harbor Pizza? – KF_

_Sure. See you there. – R_

Wally was so excited to rendezvous with his best pal that for the first time in his life, he was early. A full fifteen minutes, in fact - sitting on a bench outside the pizza shop. He alternated between scanning every crowd that passed for the boy wonder, and checking the time on his phone. He was half waiting for a text bailing on him when from behind him he heard a soft, “Hey, Walls.”

“H-hey.” A strange moment passed, where neither said anything. “So, uh, pizza?”

“Pizza. Yeah.” Robin walked into the shop behind Wally, bell jingling overhead as they made their entrance.

Without missing a beat, they sat down in the corner booth, and Robin ordered their usual. It had been so long, Wally was almost surprised Robin even still remembered. As the waitress walked away, Wally found himself asking, “So how’ve you been?”

“Fine, you?” Robin responded, as if on auto-pilot.

“No, no small talk, I’m serious,” Wally pushed, “I mean it. I want to know, how are you?”

“Wally, I said I’m fine,” Robin responded, an edge to his voice.

“Okay.” Wally raised his hands in surrender. “I was just asking because I’ve barely seen you in the last three months.”

“Wally, we’re on missions together like every other week-“

“Outside of missions. Those don’t count.” Robin stayed silent, choosing instead to stare at the table as he fiddled with a napkin. “That’s what I thought.”

“Wally, you know that’s not fair-“

“Why not? You’re always willing to make plans, but whenever it’s time to follow through, you flake. I tried to give you space like Artemis said, but that didn’t change anything, and-“

“-What did Artemis tell you?” he cut Wally off, muscles tensed.

“What? Nothing. She wouldn’t tell me anything, just said to give you some space.” Robin sunk back into his seat. “Why? Is there something I should know?” Robin grew quiet once more, swinging his feet back and forth, tapping his feet against the bases of the booth seats. Pleading, Wally tried again. “You’re never around anymore. You’re always blowing me off, and when you are around it’s like you’re not even fully there. Rob, what’s going on?”

“I’m fine. It’s not a big deal, I just…” he trailed off, biting the edge of his lip.

“Dick, I miss you. You’re sitting right in front of me and I miss you.” Robin crumpled in his seat, looking smaller than ever.

“I’m sorry, Wally.”

“Don’t be sorry, just tell me what’s going on.” He laid a hand over top of one of Robin’s. “I just want to know that you’re okay. And if you’re not, tell me how to fix it.”

Robin smiled at that, ever so slightly. “If it were that simple, we wouldn’t be here now.” After a moment, “A few months ago - back when I first started bailing on you all the time - I wasn’t in a great place. Mentally. And so missions were a little rough, what with the mind link and all. I was spending a lot of time and energy trying to push back these negative thoughts and feelings as to not distract from the mission. And I can do that, compartmentalize, for a while, but I can’t maintain that 24/7. It’s exhausting. Day to day interactions – even with my friends – has become exhausting. Not because of anything you guys are doing. Sometimes being with everyone is just too much. I get whelmed, and I just can’t keep up that mask full time.”

“Nobody’s asking you to.”

“No. I suppose not.” Robin unconsciously began tearing off bits of his napkin as he continued. “I just don’t want to bring everyone else down. And it’s hard sometimes. Just to get out of bed, or finish my homework, or brush my teeth, let alone go on missions or hang out and be a person for an hour. So, yeah, regrettably, I’ve been a bit flaky. It’s not that I don’t want to be there, because I do, I mean I love everyone on the team, and you’re my best friend in the world, and I really do try to be there when I say I will, I just… sometimes I just can’t do it.”

Slowly, Wally nodded his head, watching as Robin avoided eye contact. The waiter came over in that moment, setting down their pizzas. In silence, they each grabbed a slice. Wally dug in, while Robin nibbled at his, trying to gage his friend’s response.

“So,” Wally began, “those times you’ve bailed last second, or when you ditched out early– if you weren’t with us, what we’re you doing instead?”

Robin put his arms down on the table, too tired to fight. “Exactly what I said I was doing, Wally. If I was tired, I was sleeping. If I said homework, I was trying to do homework. I’ve been unreliable, but not a liar.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, I…” Wally trailed off, not sure where he was going with the thought. “I guess I meant… if you’ve been feeling like this, have you at least taken some time to… I dunno, talk to someone?”

“You mean like a therapist?” Wally nodded. “Yeah. Weekly. And a psychiatrist once every three.”

“And Bruce knows about all this?” Robin bit his lip. “Rob-“

“Agent A knows. He set up the appointments. And Artemis said something to Bruce a while back about ‘warning signs’ and all that. So I’m sure Bruce is aware, we just… haven’t talked about it.” He started to sweep his shredded napkin into a pile. “He’s not good at handling this sort of thing. I think he’s waiting for me to bring it up.”

Wally shifted in his seat, folding his hands together in his lap. “Well is it… the therapy and everything, is it helping, at all?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” he asked, a shy, lopsided smile on his face.

Wally just grinned in response, picking up a slice of the long forgotten pizza in front of them. Robin picked up a slice of his own, clinking it against Wally’s in a mock cheers. And for a moment – even if it was just a moment – everything was okay. 


End file.
